crockpot

That was an old chant we did in high school to get amped for football games. Oh, high school football. Such fun memories.

Speaking of memories (sort of?), Fridays is a good day to recall some not-so-distant memories from the previous week. Making it to Friday is definitely worth some celebration. It means the work week is over and the weekend has begun. And for me, it usually means I get out of cooking at least once for date night.

So I’ve decided to give birth to FRIDAY FAVORITES! A place to celebrate my great accomplishments of the week. And by accomplishments, I mean managing to feed my husband and keep the house clean. I want to share my favorites of the week: favorite meal, outfit, song, book, and whatever else made me smile during the week. And hopefully it can bring you the same simple happiness in your upcoming week :]

I’m telling you, these things are EASY. If you have time to turn the crockpot on a few hours before dinner, this one is a big hit. It’s literally chicken breasts, ranch seasoning, taco seasoning, and chicken broth. I don’t particularly love the taste of ranch, but this recipe doesn’t have an overwhelming ranch flavor. I make my tacos with meat, cheese, and sour cream and I could eat leftovers for days. Unfortunately, there weren’t any leftovers because I’m married to the cookie (or taco) monster.

This recipe turned out far better than I could have imagined. Zach informed me the night before that we were hosting a family dinner at our house. If you know me at all, you know I need at least a week of preparation for events like this!! I love party-planning and hosting, but it’s all about the details and I like to be prepared. Not to mention we definitely cannot fit ten people in our kitchen AND we were having a garage sale on the same day. Within twenty minutes, I had scrolled Pinterest for a meal plan, changed into my Superwoman gear, and headed to the grocery store.

Zach made some delicious chicken and steak kabobs, but dessert is my specialty. I found this summery recipe for no-churn ice cream that you could make in five different flavors. All I saw was “peanut butter cup” and barely glanced at the other choices. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. The base was made of whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract. I was nervous while it was being whipped up in my Kitchenaid; it felt like it was taking forever to make the “stiff peaks.” If you try it, be patient… I probably mixed for 5 minutes. I already have a million ideas of other flavors I could add in. Everyone raved about it and I will definitely be making it again… I see Oreos in my future.

The original recipe called for chopped chocolate and chopped peanut butter cups. Next time, I would double the PB and skip the chocolate (or use chocolate chips instead). It was a little too crunchy for me. I also added 1/4 cup melted peanut butter to mine to make the flavor stand out a little more. I bought a 1.5 quart Pyrex dish with a lid that worked perfectly for freezing. Let me know if you come up with any fun flavors!

In my haste to devour the entire dish, I forgot to take pictures until it was too late! Plus, Half Baked Harvest had pictures too pretty NOT to share…

Favorite Media

Favorite thing I heard: “Fairly Local”

We have been obsessed with watching America’s Got Talent and there is a cool new band called 3 Shades of Blue on there. I’m not typically into rock music, but this last week, they covered a band called Twenty One Pilots. I’ve never heard of them, or the song they performed, but it was such a cool vibe! Check out the cover here

Okay, this one is a little selfish and probably won’t benefit you at all, but I couldn’t NOT talk about it this week. We finally got it back from my amazing videographer/photographer and it is beautiful. If you are in the Oklahoma City area, CALL THEM! III Oaks Video. Their work is incredible.

I would high recommend all future brides to get a videographer. I have seen so many of my friends get married and have a family member or friend record it and it’s just not the same. Professional video has great quality and they can cut it together as a montage, add music, and pretty much do anything amazing. My parents’ wedding video was done by my mom’s uncle and he ended up recording his daughter a majority of the time rather than the wedding festivities!